


The Rabbit and the Bully

by agigabyte



Category: Halo (Video Games) & Related Fandoms
Genre: F/M, Gen, Rating May Change, Tags May Change, Warnings May Change
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-24
Updated: 2019-07-26
Packaged: 2020-07-12 16:26:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,301
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19949278
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/agigabyte/pseuds/agigabyte
Summary: Following John and Kelly through their lives as Spartans (along with some others, maybe, probably). I don't even ship this yet, to be honest--but if I like the dynamic as much as it seems, then that will likely change.Also for the record this is for a 30 days of OTP prompts thingy. It just occurred to me I didn't say that in the summary.





	1. Day 1: Meeting

A trainer walked toward Kelly menacingly, brandishing his baton, and she pushed her back up straight, now matter how much it hurt. Her legs were burning, her chest ached, and she’d never felt so nauseous in her life. She thought she liked running, but this was something else. And now, instead of the playground they were promised, she and the others were lined up in front of some sort of twisted obstacle course. 

She was torn from her thoughts by Mendez. “The first person in every row will be team number one,” he yelled. “The second person will be team number two, and so on. If you do not understand this, speak up now.” Not a word in response. Normally, that would probably mean someone was too proud to admit they didn’t understand. Not here. Only a few hours in, and they were all too scared of punishment for that. 

She looked to her left, and saw she was partnered with two boys. Sam-034 was the biggest kid her age she’d ever seen, but also friendly-looking. The other… John-084 looked like a bully. The way he stood, the way he sneered at her. She tried to keep her expression neutral, but she’d never liked bullies, and it bled through. 

Mendez’ voice cut through her thoughts again. “Today’s game,” he said, “is called ‘Ring the Bell.’” He pointed to the tallest pole on the entire so-called playground. It was ten meters taller than the rest and it has a steel pole right next to it. On that second pole was a brass bell. Kelly looked at John and Sam. Sam seemed contemplative, while John had narrowed his eyes with determined grit. He wasn’t going to work with them. 

“There are many ways to get to the bell. I leave it up to each team to find their own way. When every member of you team has rung the bell, you are to get groundside double time and run back here across the finish line.” He scratched a line in the sand with his electric baton. 

Out of the corner of her eye, Kelly saw John raise his hand--and then he didn’t cower under Mendez’ glare.

“A question, trainee?”

“What do we win?” That was a good question. She hoped it would be food. 

Sure enough, “You win dinner, Number-117,” Mendez said. “Tonight, dinner is roast turkey. Gravy and mashed potatoes, corn on the cob, brownies, and ice cream.” 

Kelly’s stomach growled.  _ God _ , she couldn’t wait for dinner. 

Of course, Mendez had to go and ruin it. “But for there to be winners there must be a loser. The last team to finish goes without food.”

Kelly fixed the nearest kid--Fred-104--with a glare and he shrank back. She  _ was _ getting that meal. 

“Make ready,” Mendez ordered. Sam scooted closer to John and she followed. “I’m Sam,” he said. They knew each other’s names from the tags but it was polite, she guessed. 

“I’m Kelly,” she said. John glanced at both of them but didn’t respond.  _ What a jerk. _

“Go!” Shouted Mendez, and the trainees took off. John shoved ahead, pushing through anyone in his way--even the kids who were bigger like Sam--and made it to the front. 

After that, she lost track of him because she and Sam were getting shoved around. Two of the other kids surrounded Sam and tried to push him down. Kelly stomped on the nearest girl’s toe, but caught a shove to chest. Sam caught her and steadied her, but the other girl had already recovered and gotten past them. 

By the time Kelly and Sam had rung the bell and made it back across the finish line, they were in the back of the group. They glared at John as they passed the line, aware that they would go without food because he’d left them. 

“Good work, trainees,” said Mendez, actually smiling. “Let’s get back to the barracks and chow down.” Everyone cheered except Sam and Kelly--including John. Was he stupid?  “All except team three.” 

“But I won!” John said. Yep. Definitely stupid. “I was first.”

“Yes,  _ you _ were first. But your team came in last. Remember this,” Mendez said, speaking to everyone, “ _ you _ don’t win unless you team wins. One person winning at the expense of the group means that you lose.” 

On the way back to the barracks, Kelly came up to Sam. Between pants for breath, she managed to get out the words, “So, are we going to--” before Sam waved a hand to interrupt her. 

“At the barracks.” He sounded more out of breath than her. He was strong, but clearly not used to running. 

In the mess hall, Kelly and Sam gulped down water next to each other, then sat in silence for a few minutes before Kelly finally spoke up. “So, we’re going to make him work with us, right?”

“If it’s the same teams, you mean. But yeah. I don’t wanna miss out on this twice in a row.” 

“Good,” Kelly said.

\--

“Same teams as yesterday,” Mendez announced. Kelly and Sam stormed up to John, and Sam immediately shoved him. 

“You better help us,” he hissed, “or I’ll push you off one of those platforms.” 

“And I’ll jump on you,” Kelly added. She didn’t weigh a lot but that didn’t matter at these heights.

“Okay,” John said. “Just try not to slow me down.” He really was annoying. 

Kelly looked away from him and at the course, until he nudged her and Sam, pointing. “Look. That basket and rope on the far side. It goes straight to the top. It’s a long pull, though.” He didn’t seem sure they could make it, and neither was Kelly. “We’ll make it,” Sam said. 

“We’ll have to make a quick run for it,” John said. “Make sure no one else gets there first.’ 

That wasn’t a problem for Kelly. “I’m fast,” she said. “Real fast.” 

Mendez shouted for them to get ready, but she didn’t pay attention to the actual words. She leaned down into a runner’s starting position. 

“Okay, you sprint ahead and hold it for us,” John said, like that wasn’t obviously her plan. 

“Go!”

Kelly burst into motion. This was the first time in the past two days she’d gotten to really  _ run _ . The others had been at a set speed or bogged down by other kids. This was what she lived for. 

It was over almost as fast as it started, and she turned to see another boy approaching. “Get out,” he said, “I’m going up.” Did he think she would just listen? He wasn’t much larger than her and she was one of the smallest kids here.

That was proven when John and Sam easily pulled away from the basket, Sam adding a quip that he should wait his turn. 

Together, the three were able to pull themselves up, working in perfect harmony in spite of how hard it was. They were the third group to the bell, but they each got to ring it, then slid down and ran together across the finish line. 

Sam clapped them both on their backs. “That was good work.” He thought for a moment. “We can be friends… I mean, if you want. It’d be no big deal.” 

Kelly shrugged, trying to seem casual. “Sure,” she said. She’d need friends here. It was obvious that Mendez and the trainers wouldn’t be letting them go back home. Sam was nice, and thoughtful, and it seemed like maybe she’d misjudged John. He was mean, but he was also clever, and he could learn. 

“Okay,” John said, sounding as casual as she’d tried to. “Friends.” 


	2. Day 2: Realization

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's a day late but that's w/e. For reference, this takes place on Emerald Cove, when the Spartans stole the trainers' supplies and spent a week lounging on an island. They're around 12 at this point.

“Come on, Sam! You’ve got this!” Or at least, Kelly hoped he did. He was engaged in a valiant arm wrestle against Alice, and she’d bet her serving of calamari--or whatever the fish here was actually called--on him. He was the strongest Spartan--stronger than even Alice was, normally--but midway through the contest, his arm had cramped up. He’d recovered valiantly, but he was clearly at a disadvantage now. 

Kelly cursed under her breath as Sam’s arm came within a hair’s breadth of the makeshift table for the third time--and this time, it hit the table. Everyone went silent for a moment, before Alice jumped up and whooped with uncharacteristic glee. She turned and high-fived Jorge, who pulled her into a one-armed hug. “We did it, Jorge! We finally dethroned him!” The two Spartans had been trying to beat Sam for almost a year now, ever since he’d claimed his spot as champion arm wrestler. 

“I’ll get it back soon, Alice. This was a fluke and you know it.” 

Kelly missed whatever the response was, because Linda grabbed her attention with a cleared throat and a poke to the arm. “Pay up,” she said. 

Kelly huffed in response. “Do I have to give you all of it? The MREs are just awful.” Linda crossed her arms. 

“A deal’s a deal, Kelly.” 

Kelly huffed again, but gave Linda the slip of paper. John and Kurt had come up with those; the supplies they’d nicked from Mendez included a bunch of mass-produced luxury items like razors, and with them, paper manuals. They’d taken them out and passed around a manual to each spartan, to present to whoever was in charge of meals that day. When asked why they should bother when there were ways to keep track that  _ couldn’t _ be stolen, they replied that that was exactly the point; the Spartans needed entertainment and keeping their meal tickets safe would provide that. 

Kelly had caught every would-be pickpocket thus far, but that didn’t matter when she gambled away her calamari like an idiot. 

Linda took the slip in two fingers and slipped away, leaving Kelly to fume for a moment and then dash off toward a nice secluded cove she’d discovered on the far edge of the island, tears in her eyes.

She didn’t know why she was crying. It was stupid. It was just a single night missing out on calamari. It wasn’t like she wasn’t used to MREs. She was Kelly-Oh-Eight-Fucking-Seven. She did not cry about missing some sort of civilian luxury. She-

“Kelly?” She looked up. She didn’t know how long she’d been running, but she’d reached the cove--and John was there already. She wiped away tears from her eyes, and saw him doing the same thing. 

“Oh. You came here to cry too?” 

John nodded. “I… it’s stupid, really. I got into a fight with Grace and then she said that I was a terrible leader and I know it’s just Grace being herself but… I don’t know. Sorry, I’m rambling. What’s wrong?” He scooted over to make room for her on the rock he was sitting on, and she gladly sat down. 

“It feels kind of stupid to me too, really. My thing, I mean. Sam and Alice were having an arm wrestling contest--I’m sure that’s shocking--and Alice actually won. Luck more than anything, although thinking about it since Linda bet on Alice it may have been more than luck, but anyway, Linda won and I had to give up my meal ticket for the night. It’s not like I’ll--” she sniffled, then wiped her eyes and continued. “It’s not like I’ll starve, since we have MREs, it’s just--” she huffed. “I don’t know. Like I said, it’s stupid.” 

She suddenly felt John wrap his arms around her, and to her eternal embarrassment, she  _ yelped _ in surprise. He leaned back a little and stared at her, then started laughing. It was a wonderful sound. When they’d been younger, his laughter had always been vindictive. As they grew older, and he grew out of his bullyish nature, the cruel laughs went away, but they were never really replaced with anything beyond smiles. The rare times he did laugh warmed the spirits of everyone nearby, and they were something to be treasured. 

That didn’t stop her from slugging him in the gut, hard. Unfortunately, that just made him laugh harder once he got his breath back, and after a few moments of trying to resist, she lost control and joined him. They leaned against each other for support, laughing far harder than the situation warranted, until Kelly slipped off of John’s shoulder, and they fell off the rock--prompting another laughing fit. 

Once they could finally breathe again, they just lay there for a while, staring into each other’s eyes. John’s eyes were such a brilliant, vibrant blue. Similar to her own, she knew, but there was just something else about them that made them special. 

“Hey, Kelly?”

“Yeah?” 

“I can split my dinner with you, tonight. I mean, if you’d like that?”

Kelly’s breath hitched. She felt tears well up in her eyes again, and buried her head into John’s shoulder. 

“I’m sorry! What did I--” 

“Nothing!” She’d heard the shakiness in his voice. He was about to cry again, too. “No, I would love that. That’s really--” she sniffled again. “That’s really sweet of you. Sorry. I guess I get what- what they meant about puberty messing with our feelings.” 

John laughed, quietly, this time. It was little more than an exhale, really. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.” 

“John?”

“Yeah?” 

“Thank you. Really. It means a lot to me.” He squeezed her a little bit tighter, pressing his cheek up against her temple. 

“You’re welcome, Kelly. You’re my best friend. I care about you a lot.” This time she did cry, just a little bit. The Spartans were never that open about these things, and to hear such a blatant admission of care was wonderful.

Her tears were only partly joyful, however; she’d finally figured out what was so special about his eyes. 


End file.
